Customizing Emacs using a .emacs file

To customize Emacs, you need to write some Lisp code. It's not really that difficult. The code should be put in a file named '.emacs' in your home directory. Every time Emacs starts up, it automatically reads any Lisp code you have put into your '.emacs' file.

To define a key binding, use an expression of this form:

(define-key key-map keystrokes function)

To set an Emacs variable, use an expression of this form:

(setq variable value)

The section below gives some typical customizations you might perform in your '.emacs' file. Note that comments in are preceded by semicolon ';' characters.